ROUGEARD: THE LION IN SPRING


CLOS


With its wines made from Cabernet Franc in Saumur-Champigny and from Chenin Blanc in Anjou, Clos Rougeard represents “all that is good about the Loire,” says Simon Field MW, who finds the historic estate going from strength to strength under the stewardship of the Bouygues family


rather well in the film The Lion in Winter, with England’s hegemony at stake and France’s honor at risk. What better backdrop than the mighty Loire, which snakes through the “garden of France,” its 300 châteaux fortifying the route and serving as a poetic reminder of the significance of a region that has long served as a retreat for the aristocracy and playground of the affluent? And, of course, as the source of some of France’s most subtle and nuanced wines. One of the châteaux that Henry chose to restore and further


I


fortify was on the south bank of what is now the town of Saumur, a modest conurbation of 26,000 people that lies between the larger towns of Angers and Tours. Famous for its tank museum and equestrian school, Saumur was, somewhat surprisingly, the birthplace of Coco Chanel. Its château also imprisoned the Marquis de Sade and inspired Balzac’s Eugénie Grandet. Furthermore, it is celebrated for its wines. Saumur is normally grouped with Anjou when it comes


to categorizing the Loire Valley, thereby placing it at the center of the triptych that is hinged by the panels of Muscadet and Sancerre, among others. Anjou Saumur is, needless to say, complicated, with a healthy quota of ancestral grape varieties (Grolleau, Gamay, Pineau d’Aunis, and the like), as well as a buoyant legacy of sparkling and rosé wine production. Our focus here is on the most planted and most noble of varieties, Chenin


Left: Estate manager Cyril Chirouze, who came to Clos Rougeard from Beaujolais in 2023, topping up barrels of the domaine’s three red wines.


THE WORLD OF FINE WINE | ISSUE 87 | 2025 | 143


t was from Chinon rather than the marshes of Aquitaine that Henry II of England, in 1150, made a valiant attempt to carve up western France and to salvage, at the very least, the legal gift of his marriage to Eleanor. Peter O’Toole and Katharine Hepburn capture the tension


All photography by Jon Wyand


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